Does anyone know of or have any VBA code or similar logic that can
help distinguish similar first/last name combinations? For example, we
would like to prompt the user of a possible match when any of the
first/last names Robert Smith, or Bob Smith, or Robt. Smith are used
during data entry. All that is necessary is to alert the user so that
they can review any appropriate existing records.

We have done several google searches without any luck. Any and all
help is appreciated.

I have successfully integrated the Ratcliff/Obershelp algorithm, which
calculates the similarity between two strings. Anything over a certain
threshold would be run by the user: "Is it one of these?". AFAIK it is
only available in C.

-Tom.

Does anyone know of or have any VBA code or similar logic that canhelp distinguish similar first/last name combinations? For example, wewould like to prompt the user of a possible match when any of thefirst/last names Robert Smith, or Bob Smith, or Robt. Smith are usedduring data entry. All that is necessary is to alert the user so thatthey can review any appropriate existing records.

We have done several google searches without any luck. Any and allhelp is appreciated.

Tony Ciconte <to******@comcast.net> wrote:
: Does anyone know of or have any VBA code or similar logic that can
: help distinguish similar first/last name combinations? For example, we
: would like to prompt the user of a possible match when any of the
: first/last names Robert Smith, or Bob Smith, or Robt. Smith are used
: during data entry. All that is necessary is to alert the user so that
: they can review any appropriate existing records.

I wrote *very crude* code for this: it matches the alphanumeric
content of strings, *without any regard for order*, so although it
often works very well, you'll find some real howlers.
It sets a threshhold for matching that you can of course change.
Here's my code; excuse the numbers at the beginning of each line:
I got it from an Access export file before I learned how to export the
code alone.

483 IsAlphaNumeric = sChr Like "[0-9A-Za-z]"
484 End Function
485
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: We have done several google searches without any luck. Any and all
: help is appreciated.